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13) Kevin Durant scored 51 points, Russell Westbrook 40 as the Thunder won a great NBA game 124-118 in OT over Denver Sunday night. Serge Ibaka blocked 11 shots and had a triple/double for Oklahoma City, which had a 20-0 run that bridged the 2nd/3rd quarters.

12) Durant/Westbrook's combined 91 points were more than six NBA teams scored on Sunday. They do need to develop more scoring options, but in the meantime, they're a lot of fun to watch.

11) Denver's Chris Anderson was +17 in 29 minutes, scoring 11 points with six rebounds; he was on floor in crunchtime, the ultimate compliment for any player, but with all his tattoos and that beard, he is a scary dude to look at. He is the Australian Rodman, I guess. A good player.

10) Chris Mullin is fun to listen to, but he needs to work on talking little louder, or maybe I need a freakin' hearing aide, because I have problems understanding some of HBO's Luck too, but then I listen to Dick Vitale scream and holler and I realize my hearing is still pretty good.

9) The Knicks' bandwagon is taking on so many people that I'm stopping writing about them. Memo to all directors of NBA broadcasts; it is really annoying to show Spike Lee 25 times a game. Trust me on this. He gets on air more than Mike D'Antoni.

8) Bill Haas won a 3-man playoff at the LA Open; Mickelson/Bradley, in losing the playoff, earned $607,800 less than Haas, but they all did pretty well this week. Haas won the $10M FedEx Cup LY, so he's doing OK.

7) Not doing so well is Isiah Thomas, who is now 25-63 as coach down at Florida International. Where does FIU turn if they fire an NBA legend?

6) Charlotte Bobcats lost 108-73 to Indiana, 7th time in this short season they've lost by 30+ points. They're looking like the favorite to win NBA Draft Lottery this spring. They should draft a front office.

5) The lesson learned in the last two notes? Michael Jordan/Isiah Thomas were both great players, but that doesn't make them great coaches or even mediocre executives. Guys who were cruddy players but maybe studied the game more do a much better job. You can look it up.

4) In an unrelated item, we saw that Lamar lost a Bracket Buster game at George Mason Saturday, and were reminded that Pat Knight is now coach of the Cardinals, after getting canned at Texas Tech. Knight is 17-10, 8-4 in his first year at Lamar, tied for 3rd in Southland Conference. His team played the #29 non-conference schedule, so they'll be interesting to follow when the Southland Tournament begins next month.

3) Ersan Ilyasova, averaging 9.4 ppg this season, grabbed 25 rebounds and scored 29 points in Milwaukee's 92-85 win in New Jersey. Its very, very hard to grab 25 rebounds in any game, much less an NBA game. Ilyasova averages 7.9 rebounds a game.

2) Golfer Dustin Johnson's grandfather was an All-American basketball player at South Carolina, and was drafted by the Lakers 50 years ago.

1) Every high school basketball player should watch film of a player on Colorado State named Pierce Hornung; he's not the best player the Rams have, but he might be the best teammate. He gets loose balls, he runs the floor, he defends, he rebounds, he is a tough human who does things that help his team win. Every winning team needs players like him.

13) Manny Ramirez signed a minor league deal with the A's; I was about to go puke when I heard this, then I heard A's are only in it for $500,000, so if he's washed up or doesn't try, then can cut him with not much of a loss. If he does well, then he's worth a lot more than $500,000.

12) It is February 21, the exhibition games start next week and baseball still doesn't know for sure how the playoffs are going to work, as far as whether or not there will be a one-game playoff between two Wild Cards in each league. Former used car salesman Selig wants this to happen, but no one else seems to think its practical to do this season.

11) College basketball officials are over-using replays, trying to get every call exactly right, as far as time left and stuff like that. Lot of the reviews are irrelevant; what did these guys do before replay?

Officials in Seton Hall-Cincinnati game Saturday called a technical foul on Bearcat Yancy Gates after watching the replay; it was ridiculous, and I'm rooting for Seton Hall to win. Over-officiating is becoming the norm.

10) Raul Ibanez hit 20 HRs LY, 15 in hitter-friendly Citizens Bank Park; now he's in another hitter-friendly park in the Bronx. Ibanez is 7-23 with with two homers in his games in the new Bronx bandbox.

9) Giants claimed LY that Buster Posey wasn't blocking the plate when he got hurt in a collision; now they've ordered him not to block the plate anymore. San Francisco needs a healthy Posey to contend this season.

8) Former big league catcher Paul Loduca is a handicapper on TGV, which is old news that I had forgotten about until I saw him on air Monday. I'm told by somebody who plays the horses a lot that he isn't a very good handicapper; he does sound knowledgeable on TV.

7) Celtics' PG Rajan Rondo got suspended for two games for tossing ball at an official; he missed Monday's loss to Dallas, and won't play in their next game either, Wednesday at Oklahoma City. Tough games to miss.

6) I had forgotten about Greg Oden; the big guy had another operation on his knees, this time his third microfracture, and his career seems to be in serious doubt. He's played only 82 NBA games after missing half of his one year at Ohio State. Hope he saved the money he's made.

5) Chiefs signed free agent DB Stanford Routt, who played for Oakland LY and signed a $31.5M deal with the Raiders. He led the NFL LY with 17 penalties committed, but is said to be a good cover corner.

4) Something to think about next month: In last nine years, Michigan St. has never played in the finals of the Big Dozen tournament; their record in the tournament seminfinals is an unsightly 0-6. Hmmmmm........

3) Six times this season a Big East home team was favored by 6.5 points in a conference game; all six home favorites lost SU.

2) Not for nothing, but Steve Novak better be in the 3-point shooting contest on Saturday night; him, Morrow, Kopono, Redick, Nash????

1) Guess I'm surprised that spring training has started and neither Roy Oswalt or Johnny Damon has signed up with a team yet. Scouts seem to be concerned that Damon isn't working the strike zone as much, because he is more concerned with getting to 3,000 hits than he is with walks.

Another night closer to Madness. Amazing how you buy a point or two what a difference it makes in basketball.
Absolutely the lines are so good its crazy. Really not in love with much tonight. So will just go easy.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

GEORGIA TECH/CLEMSON OVER 119 POINTS

I remember these guys putting up a bunch of points and thats the only reason I am throwing it out there. Also likeVirginia to win on the road tonight. GL

13) As usual, the San Antonio Spurs are flying under the NBA’s radar; the Knicks (who haven’t won a title since 1973) get on cover of Sports Illustrated for getting to .500, the Spurs have won four NBA titles in 13 years and no one mentions them, which is probably how they like it, but they’re having another very good season, and with Manu Ginobili missing much of the season.

12) Tampa Bay Buccaneers are $67M under the salary cap; if I had season tickets, I’d want to see some of that $67M spent before my seats got renewed for next season.

11) Buccaneers hired Bill Sheridan as their new DC, which ain’t gonna sell many tickets, considering how hideous Sheridan’s defense played when he took over as DC from Steve Spagnuolo after the Giants won the Super Bowl four years ago. Better spend most of that cap money on defensive players.

10) The first telephone book was published in 1878. Just thought you’d like to know.

9) NBA regular season is now pretty much half over, in terms of games played; when is DirecTV going to lower the criminally-high price of their Full Court package? One thing I learned this season; with NBAtv/ESPN/ TNT having a game on at 10:30 most weeknights, I don’t miss the Full Court package as much as I thought I would, so its +$170 for me.

8) Dan Uggla, who flopped miserably in his first year as Atlanta’s 2B (and his first full year as 2B of my fantasy team) has added 20 pounds thru increased weightlifting. Hopefully that was to help him hit the ball farther and not to impress Bibi Jones.

7) Odds on New Mexico winning the national title in hoops have dropped from 200-1 to 50-1. Lobos have never even been in the Sweet 16 before.

6) Broncos’ backup Brady Quinn, for some reason, was interviewed in GQ magazine, and let it be known he’s not the biggest Tim Tebow fan.

Two questions: a) If I’m a QB for the Broncos and I couldn’t get on the field this season, then I’m checking out want ads for the Arena League, because that’s where my career is headed, and

5) You think the athletes at San Diego State are going to miss Mountain West Conference? Aztecs’ womens’ basketball team got stranded in Laramie, WY Tuesday. Imagine living in San Diego and getting stranded by snow in Laramie? Not good.

San Diego State will be in the Big West next year, where the only non-California road trip will be to Hawai’i. Much better.

4) Match Play golf pool tip of the day: Over the last 13 years, #16 seeds are 15-37 in the first round against #1 seeds, so you figure one of the four #1’s is going down Wednesday.

3) Must admit that I’m looking forward to watching some NASCAR this year; I know NOTHING about cars, not even sure I could pop the hood on my own car, that’s how stupid I am about cars, but I enjoy the enthusiasm of the TV people and the pit stops are fun to watch.

2) By the time Manny Ramirez has served his 50-game suspension, the A’s will be out of the pennant race, and if they’re not, I’m going to be very happy. As a matter of fact, just made that my goal for the 2012 A’s; “Stay in it ‘til Manny gets here”.

Look at the A’s roster; staying in the race for 50 games would be an accomplishment.

1) Remember when Vince McMahon’s WWF sued that they shouldn’t be subject to anti-steroids law, because they were “sports entertainment”, not real sports? Well, the lawyer who made that argument is now running for President, Mr Rick Santorum. What a country.

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